Kein Einfluss der Mondphase auf die Nachblutungsinzidenz nach Schilddrüsenoperationen: Eine Analyse von 26.852 Operationen

Abstract

Kein Einfluss der Mondphase auf die Nachblutungsinzidenz nach Schilddrüsenoperationen: Eine Analyse von 26.852 Operationen Zusammenfassung. Grundlagen: Nichtwissenschaftliche Quellen behaupten, dass Operationen, die bei zunehmendem und vor allem bei vollem Mond durchgeführt werden, ein höheres Risiko für postoperative Komplikationen tragen. Ziel war es, in unserem großem Krankengut zu evaluieren, ob der Mondzyklus die Inzidenz an Nachblutungen nach Schilddrüsenoperationen beeinflusste. Methodik: In einer retrospektiven Kohortenstudie wurden alle 424 Patienten mit Revisionsoperation wegen Nachblutung nach Schilddrüsenoperation im Zeitraum von 1979 bis 2005, für die Datum und Zeitpunkt der Erstoperation genau vorlagen, inkludiert. Die Mondphase zum Zeitpunkt des Hautschnittes der Erstoperation wurde mittels eines Internet-basierten Programms berechnet. Ergebnisse: Nachblutungen waren etwas seltener bei abnehmendem Mond (54,7 % bei zunehmendem Mond, 45,3 % bei abnehmendem Mond; p ¼ 0,052). Trägt man jedoch die Inzidenz der Nachblutungen gegenüber den einzelnen Mondtagen auf, wird eine zufällige Fluktuation ersichtlich: Das lineare Regressionsmodell zeigt keinerlei signifikante Korrelationen (r 2 ¼ 0,0046). Schlussfolgerungen: Die Patienten müssen sich im Rahmen der Terminisierung elektiver Operationen keine Sorgen um die Mondphase machen. Schlüsselwörter: Nachblutung, Mondphase, Mond, Schilddrü senoperationen, Chirurgie.Summary. Background: It has been claimed by nonscientific sources that operations carried out at waxing moon are associated with a higher risk of complications. We aimed to evaluate if the lunar cycle influenced the incidence of postoperative haemorrhage (PH) after thyroid surgery in our large database.Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 424 patients requiring surgery for thyroid disease and suffering from PH from the years 1979 to 2006 for whom the precise operation date and hour were known. The lunar phase at the time of skin incision was calculated with an onlinecalculator.Results: PH was somewhat less prevalent in the waning phase (54.7% waxing, 45.3% waning moon; p ¼ 0.052). If the incidence of PH is plotted for each day of the lunar cycle only a random fluctuation was observed: A linear regression does not yield any significant correlation (r 2 ¼ 0.0046).Conclusions: Patients need not worry about the lunar cycle when deciding on elective surgery.

Popular Belief Meets Surgical Reality: Impact of Lunar Phases, Friday the 13th and Zodiac Signs on Emergency Operations and Intraoperative Blood Loss

“…The results of our study are in line with most previously published studies dealing with the influence of folk belief on surgical complications [3,23,24]. The fact that emergency cases are more frequent during the zodiac signs of Capricorn, Aries, and Gemini is easy to explain because the religious Christian holidays (Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun) cumulate in these periods.…”

“…When analyzing big cohorts for cyclical aspects or trends—as given by moon phases and zodiac signs—the number of investigated cycles is more important than the overall number of investigated subjects. The results of our study are in line with most previously published studies dealing with the influence of folk belief on surgical complications [3, 23, 24]. The fact that emergency cases are more frequent during the zodiac signs of Capricorn, Aries, and Gemini is easy to explain because the religious Christian holidays (Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun) cumulate in these periods.…”

“…To our knowledge, however, no study dealing with the problem of superstition in medicine to date has provided a detailed power and sample size calculation. Third, recent studies dealing with the influence of the full moon on medical emergency cases may face a large degree of beta error because of small patient cohorts and rare events [3, 17, 21, 24, 27]. To overcome the problem of analyzing rare events in a cyclical context within a limited number of patients, some of the recent studies have not clearly defined the event of “full moon” or allocated this event to a time period of several days [22, 27].…”

Influence of Weekday of Surgery on Operative Complications. An Analysis of 25.000 Surgical Procedures

“…Any influence of the occurrence of Friday 13 th could be equally ruled out. This is supported by previous studies on the impact of lunar phases on patients presenting to the emergency department, incidence of myocardial infarction and cardiac death, on emergency operations and intraoperative blood loss and postoperative haemorrhage after thyroid surgery and tonsillectomies [5,7,9,15]. Nandra, et al analyzed the weekend effect in comparison to the 30-day mortality with 2061 patients with fractures of the proximal femur.…”

“…Studies have been performed to analyze the effect of the lunar cycle on birth rates [4], emergency department presentations [5], cardiopulmonary resuscitations [6,7] and psychiatric disorders [8]. Surgery specific studies looked into the incidence of postoperative hemorrhage [9,10], intraoperative blood loss [11], morbidity and mortality after lung and breast cancer surgery [12,13] and quality of radical cystectomy for bladder cancer [14] in relation to the lunar cycle. These studies could not show any effect of the moon.…”